UNSW Law Journal 40(3) Launch – Business and Human Rights

The University of New South Wales Law Journal will launch Issue 40(3) at the Sydney offices of Herbert Smith Freehills on Tuesday 26 September, from 6:30pm to 8:30pm. The Issue features a thematic component on ‘Business and Human Rights: The Limits of the Law’, which explores the extent to which law is an effective means to encourage businesses to adopt a proactive and responsible approach to human rights.

We are privileged to have the keynote address delivered by Ms Amy Sinclair, Representative for Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific at the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre. Ms Sinclair is an international lawyer, researcher and adviser on human rights in business with experience working in the not-for-profit sector as an adviser to NGOs and public bodies on business and human rights law, policy and advocacy. She has ten years' prior experience as a corporate lawyer with major international legal practices in London, Hong Kong and Sydney.

The thematic component comprises five articles from ten authors, and a foreword by Associate Professor Justine Nolan, Deputy Director of the Australian Human Rights Centre. The thematic articles address a range of issues, including: how Australian corporations could be held criminally liable for extraterritorial human rights violations committed by foreign subsidiaries; the current progress and potential of the business and human rights treaty; critiques of the treaty process through the lens of regulatory ritualism; the improving responses of companies to child labour in supply chains induced by soft law initiatives, as observed by civil society organisations; and how local stakeholder involvement in private regulatory mechanisms can better protect workers in global supply chains.